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Mar 22, 2018

Pentagon’s New Arms-Research Chief Eyes Space-Based Ray Guns

Posted by in categories: military, particle physics, space travel

Neutral-particle beams, a concept first tried in the 1980s, may get a fresh look under Michael Griffin.

“Directed energy is more than just big lasers, Griffin said. ”That’s important. High-powered microwave approaches can effect an electronics kill. The same with the neutral particle beam systems we explored briefly in the 1990s” for use in space-based anti-missile systems. Such weapons can be ”useful in a variety of environments” and have the ”advantage of being non-attributable,” meaning that it can be hard to pin an attack with a particle weapon on any particular culprit since it leaves no evidence behind of who or even what did the damage.

Like lasers, neutral-particle beams focus beams of energy that travel in straight lines, unaffected by electromagnetic fields. But instead of light, neutral-particle beams use composed of accelerated subatomic particles traveling at near-light speed, making them easier to work with (though the folks that run CERNs hadron collider may disagree). When its particles touche the surface of a target, they takes on a charge that allows them to penetrate the target’s shell or exterior more deeply.

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Mar 22, 2018

Super happy to announce that due to the incredible success of the 2018 Undoing Aging Conference we are pleased to announce that Undoing Aging will return in 2019

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

This will be an annual conference series to promote awareness of age-related diseases and the ongoing scientific breakthroughs in rejuvenation biotechnology.

More info: https://www.undoing-aging.org/news/undoing-aging-to-return-in-2019

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Mar 22, 2018

Transhumanism Is Complicating the Sometimes Antagonistic Faith vs. Science Dynamic

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, science, transhumanism, transportation

Millenials grew up under the technological halo of Moore’s law, enjoying booming exponential growth of computation power that ushered in the information age. It should come as no surprise that transhumanism has earned a degree of mainstream acceptance—from Hollywood movies to magazine covers and the latest sci-fi TV. Transhumanist beliefs will continue to permeate culture as long as the promise of technological progress holds its end of the bargain.


For transhumanist faiths, technology becomes a way of cashing checks religion helped write.

For instance, Silicon Valley engineer Anthony Levandowski—whom you may know from the Uber-Waymo lawsuit over self-driving car technology—recently launched the Way of the Future Church, a new religious organization based on developing godlike artificial intelligence. On its website, the Way of the Future states, “We believe the creation of ‘super intelligence’ is inevitable,” and according to IRS documents detailed by Wired, this new religion seeks “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” This exuberance departs from the cautious stance toward A.I. taken by Hawking, Musk, and others who warn that artificial superintelligence could pose an existential threat. However, regardless of whether artificial superintelligence is seen as an angel or a demon, Hawking, Musk, and A.I. evangelists alike share the common belief that this technology should be taken seriously.

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Mar 22, 2018

How 3D printing is spurring revolutionary advances in manufacturing and design

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space

A young startup called Relativity is pushing space technology forward by pushing 3D printing technology to its limits, building the largest metal 3D printer in the world. And other major companies anxious to try these new ways of manufacturing, too. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at some of the amazing advances that’s launching the technology into a new era.

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Mar 21, 2018

Menstrual Pain is Equal to Heart Attack, Claims Study

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Doctors at University College London claims that menstrual pain can be as painful as heart attacks and cause a great degree of discomfort.

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Mar 21, 2018

What Will Our Society Look Like When Artificial Intelligence Is Everywhere?

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

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Mar 21, 2018

Physicists Are About to Attempt The ‘Impossible’ — Turning Light Into Matter

Posted by in category: physics

Theoretically, it should be possible to turn light into matter. In practice, well — “easier said than done” is an understatement.

Now, 84 years after the process was first theorised, some researchers reckon they’re going to be able to do it — and they’re about to start the experiment.

It’s called the Breit-Wheeler process, and it all has to do with E=mc.

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Mar 21, 2018

A crowdfunded MouseAge launches crowdsourced research in deep learned biomarkers of aging

Posted by in category: life extension

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Mar 21, 2018

China’s Space Station Should Crash to Earth in Coming Weeks

Posted by in category: space

China’s Tiangong-1space station will de-orbit between the end of March and the first week of April, according to estimates.

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Mar 21, 2018

13-Year-Old Boy Is First Person in US to Receive Newly Approved Gene Therapy for Blindness

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

On Tuesday, a 13-year-old boy from New Jersey was at the center of medical history as he became the first person in the US to receive an FDA-approved gene therapy for an inherited disease. The event marks the beginning of a new era of medicine, one in which devastating genetic conditions that we are born with can be simply edited out of our DNA with the help of modern biomedical technologies.

The therapy, Luxturna, from Spark Therepeutics, was approved by the FDA in December to treat a rare, inherited form of blindness. Its price tag, set at $850,000—or $425,000 per eye—made it the most expensive drug in the US and sparked mass sticker-shock. But the therapy, which in high-profile clinical trials has allowed patients to see the stars for the first times, also offered the almost miraculous possibility of giving sight to the blind.

The therapy is intended to treat retinal diseases, including leber congenital amaurosis or retinitis pigmentosa, caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene. The RPE65 gene produces an enzyme that helps the eye process light. In these disorders, severe visual impairment begins often in infancy, and sometimes degrades over time. Some people with a mutated copy of the gene can see during the day; others are legally blind. The drug works by delivering a correct copy of the RP65 gene to retinal cells, allowing the patient to produce the deficient enzyme—and, hopefully, restoring their vision. (Luxturna is considered by some to be the first “true gene therapy” approved by the FDA, since other approved therapies, like those for blood cancers, involve removing a patient’s cells from their body, modifying them externally, and then infusing them back into the body.)

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